Good article .. mentions Steve and Hakeem near the end Shooting himself in the foot by Jack McCallum, Sports Illustrated After the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant attempted a mind-boggling, shoulder-ravaging 47 shots in a game last week against the Boston Celtics, TNT commentator Danny Ainge, who as a player never met a shot he didn't like, could hardly contain himself. "Forty-seven!" Ainge exclaimed. "Man, you gotta be good to get off 47 shots." Ainge was entirely serious, and I mention this as a way of sneaking up on the subject of Allen Iverson. The Philadelphia 76ers' Mighty Mouse is not only good, he is very good, one of the league's top half-dozen or so players, a fearless, gutsy warrior. But when it comes to the subject of players willing to shoot, A.I. stands in a class by himself. In fact, by the time he hangs it up, we may be able to call him the biggest gunner in NBA history. Prior to this season, Iverson averaged 22.7 shots per game for his career. Based on his average of 41.1 minutes per game, this works out to one field goal attempt every 1.8 minutes. After six games this season, he is putting up a shot every 1.6 minutes, but has attempted 25.3 shots per game. I would call that number "staggering" except that it is lower than his 27.8 FGAs per game of last season. Pulling out the calculator, I began thinking of other players who could rival that kind of gunning. The most obvious was Wilt Chamberlain, a statistical anomaly if there ever was one. The Big Dipper attempted 31 shots per game in his first seven seasons, far more than Iverson. But Chamberlain was scoring at a rate of 39.5 points per game and, since he rarely left the floor, attempted one shot every 1.7 minutes, slightly less than Iverson so far this season. Furthermore, Chamberlain gradually changed his game to become a back-to-the-basket passer and fin! is! hed his 14-year career having taken an average of 22.5 shots per game. Who else compares to Iverson? The NBA's all-time leading scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, attempted only 18.1 shots per game, or one shot every two minutes. How about George Gervin who rarely did anything but shoot? The Iceman took one shot every 1.7 minutes, close to Iverson, but Gervin only jacked up 20 field goals per game. Three other retired players came to mind but A.I. has so far outgunned all of them: Dominique Wilkins (20.1 shots per game, one shot every 1.8 minutes); John Havlicek (18.8, one every 1.9) and Elvin Hayes (18.6, one every 2.1) Even World B. Free -- anyone who nicknames himself "World" can't be shy about firing it up -- took only 16.9 shots per game, or one every 1.9 minutes. Among Iverson's contemporaries, there seem to be two obvious candidates. One, Karl Malone, who barring injury or retirement will someday pass Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list, falls short -- The Mailman has taken only 18 shots per game, or one every 2.1 minutes. The other player, however, is giving Iverson a run for his money. In Michael Jordan's third season, 1986-87, he jacked up 27.8 shots per game, the most since the Chamberlain era. (Remember, this is before he turned the Chicago Bulls into champions.) Jordan entered this season (is it at last safe to proclaim that it's his last?) having attempted 23.2 shots per game, but his reduced playing time, not to mention his reduced role in the Washington Wizards' offense, will surely bring that down to Iverson's level, probably below. The key factor, though, is how much more Jordan gets out of his shots than Iverson does. Jordan is a 50 percent shooter with a career scoring average! o! f 30.8 points per game, while Iverson came into this season as a career 42 percent shooter averaging 26.9 points per game. It is Iverson's shooting percentage that cannot be overlooked. This season he is shooting only 38 percent from the field and has missed all 18 of his three-point attempts. Atrocious is the only word for that. Among the 10 least reticent chuckers in the NBA this year, only Golden State's Jason Richardson (shooting just 36 percent) is laying bricks as badly as Iverson, and what do we say about the Warriors guard? That he'll become an All-Star when his shot selection improves. Bryant (who made only 17 shots on the night he attempted 47) is still shooting 43 percent from the field, and that will surely rise when Shaquille O'Neal comes back and gives Kobe more open looks. Orlando's Tracy McGrady, the league's leading scorer with 30.9 points a game, is shooting 52 percent. Look, statistics can be either lies or damned lies, as someone once pointed out. Good players on poor or average teams will perforce take more shots than good players on good teams. It's a safe bet that both Paul Pierce (20.8 shots per game this season) and Antoine Walker (19) would rival Iverson were they not Celtics teammates. Guards (as Iverson is) will have many more opportunities to shoot than other players. In those seven seasons when Chamberlain tried 31 shots per game, someone had to throw the ball in to him maybe -- what? -- 98 percent of the time, meaning that Wilt surely jacked up the ball more eagerly than any player in history considering how rarely he had it. Coaches, systems, teammates, situations -- all that goes into determining who gets the shots. But compare Iverson's shooting to that of Houston's Steve Francis, another quicksilver guard on a mediocre team. In five games, Francis has made 54 of 104 shots (52 percent). He is six of 13 on three-pointers (46 percent). Taken together, that efficiency has put him second to McGrady in scoring average at 30.4 points per game. (That number will go down, of course, when Francis's 7-foot-5 teammate, Yao Ming, begins dominating the league; that's a joke.) To reiterate: I love to watch Iverson and admire his talent and guts. But it's a cold hard fact that he is an inefficient shooter who launches it too often. * * * One anecdote about Hakeem Olajuwon, who officially retired this week, which was, by the way, the correct decision, albeit a couple of years too late. In Olajuwon's second season, I was dispatched to Houston to do a story on him and Ralph Sampson, the NBA's first set of celebrated Twin Towers. The first half of the story dealt with Olajuwon's emerging brilliance, the second half about Sampson's conflicts with Rockets coach Bill Fitch. A few weeks later I ran into Olajuwon and he stopped me. "I talked to you for a half hour and you didn't even put me in the story," he said. "You're mistaken," I said. "I wrote about you in the beginning. There was a lot in there about you." Olajuwon then produced a clipping from Sports Illustrated, which he had gotten from Sampson. Ralph had taken exception to Fitch's criticism and had ripped out the page of the story that dealt with it, circling in red the parts he found offensive. "Ralph only showed you half the story," I said. "See, I wouldn't begin a story in the middle of a sentence." A wide grin came across Olajuwon's face. "Oh," he said, "I will find the whole thing."
<i>But compare Iverson's shooting to that of Houston's Steve Francis, another quicksilver guard on a mediocre team. In five games, Francis has made 54 of 104 shots (52 percent). He is six of 13 on three-pointers (46 percent). Taken together, that efficiency has put him second to McGrady in scoring average at 30.4 points per game. (That number will go down, of course, when Francis's 7-foot-5 teammate, Yao Ming, begins dominating the league; that's a joke.) </i> No Jack YOU'RE a joke. I can't believe he called Ainge a gun, that's like calling Dell Curry a gun, or Tracy Murray a gun. These guys are paid to shoot. Of course he couldn't help but take a pot shot a Ming, but I didn't know Steve was on a mediocre team. I didn't know a team with the 5th best record in the West is mediocre. In fact I didn't know Iverson was on a mediocre team either. I guess being a team that has made the playoffs numerous years in a row and is 2 years removed from the Finals is mediocre.
Where does he call Ainge "a gun" ? I must have missed that part...he just said Ainge "never met a shot he didn't like." To anyone outside of Houston we are a mediocre team ..we have a lot of talent but until we put it together and make to the playoffs thats the way we will be perceived...sorry but thats the way it is. As far as Ming ..you should get some thicker skin because until he proves it on the court he'll be material for every sportswriter out there.
